Walker on the KLA four: Innocent - keeping them away from their families is a terrible injustice

Former American diplomat William Walker has criticized the trial of former KLA leaders in The Hague, calling it protracted and problematic from a justice perspective.

He said that the trial has lasted over 10 years and has been accompanied by numerous rotations of international lawyers, prosecutors and judges.

According to him, the comfortable living conditions in The Hague, high salaries and additional benefits may have contributed to the delay in the process, adding that some of the officials were not interested in the trial being concluded quickly.

“The trial in The Hague has been going on for 10 years. A number of international lawyers, judges, prosecutors have been involved and have left The Hague after a period of time that they have been there. Many of them have been there in this case for years and living in The Hague is a very comfortable place to live. All the facilities of modern life are there. Very good hotels, very good restaurants, the salaries that they receive are good. There are also salary supplements that not all of them receive, but I think some of them would not want. They did not want this trial to end, because almost a decade of their career working in The Hague, participating in the investigations and then the prosecution of these accused persons. They have lived a very comfortable life and I get very angry when I think about this, but considering the conditions in The Hague, considering the accommodation, the good salaries and supplements and being a prosecutor, or a judge at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. I believe that this has also influenced in the duration of this process," he told A2 CNN.

Bringing to mind the Nuremberg trials, which, according to him, were concluded within two to three years after World War II, despite the much greater scale of crimes, Walker said he would have liked the same standard to have been followed in this case.

"I was interested, I had a lot of interest in the history and international relations of the late 40s when the trial took place, when the Nuremberg trials took place. And these trials were to punish the crimes of World War II and when the Germans and others committed horrific war crimes on an unimaginable scale, millions of people were killed as a result of war crimes, and the Nuremberg trials lasted from 1945, the end of the war, to 1948, so two to three years, compared to 10 years in this case, it was a fair process. Many of the defendants were found innocent, I would like these standards of conduct by the court to have been followed in this case and in this matter," he said on Off the Record with Andrea Dangli on A2 CNN.

Walker stressed that keeping defendants in custody without a final decision violates the basic principle of justice.

According to him, it is unfair that the accused have lost years of their lives away from their families without a final decision.

"Keeping the accused in detention for four years without access to the outside world, Mr. Thaçi has been given only one day out of detention to go to the death and funeral ceremony of his father, one day out of four years. In my opinion, free speech until proven guilty is the basic principle of justice, the justice system. These people are so far innocent until proven guilty and anyway they have lost four years of their lives, four years away from their family and I think this is a terrible injustice."